Development of the laparoscope has given physicians the ability to see inside the body without the necessity of large incisions and their related hazard of infection. Use of the laparoscope, and other related devices, allows the physician to perform a variety of diagnostic and surgical procedures. The scope allows the introduction of microsurgical tools through the scope housing without impeding the physician's vision, permitting simultaneous viewing of the affected area and manipulation of the tools. During these procedures, it is often desirable to irrigate tissues. Following irrigation, or when bleeding occurs, or when smoke is generated by heat or laser evaporation of tissues, it is often necessary to apply a vacuum to evacuate the area of smoke, blood, or irrigating solution to permit continued unobstructed viewing of the area.
In the past, irrigation and evacuation during laparoscopic or other medical procedures was performed by running an individual irrigation tube through the scope housing into the patient and by running an individual vacuum tube from a vacuum source through the scope housing and into the patient, or by using connectors to hook the irrigation tube and the vacuum tube to a single tube to the patient. Until now, the evacuation and irrigation were conducted manually when required, by manipulating pinch clamps placed on the tubes. The disadvantages of this kind of system included the excessive number of lines into the patient reducing the space available in the laparoscopic housing for the passage of other instruments, the time required to assemble the lines and to manually switch from irrigation to vacuum and back, poor control over the amount of vacuum or irrigant from the pinch clamps used on the lines, and the possibility of confusing one pinch clamp with another.
The present invention provides a device which permits both irrigation and vacuum through a single line passed through a laparoscope or similar device. This substantially increases the space available in the laparoscope housing for the passage of other instruments. Additionally, the time required for setting up and performing irrigation and evacuation is significantly decreased, lowering the overall time required for the operation or procedure. Finally, the present invention provides more precise control over irrigation and evacuation.